The Demand for API and Developer Evangelists

11 Jun 2012

I just got off the phone with a recruiter of a major API management company, looking to recruit me as a developer evangelist, and last week I talked with two companies looking for developer evangelists.

My profile comes up in a lot of searches on Google, LinkedIn , and with the growing number of APIs, the number of companies looking to fill the role, grows as well. It makes sense that I come up in searches and get a regular stream of calls.

Most recruiters I decline, as I’m looking to pay attention to the bigger picture, beyond just a single API--and tell them I will put out a signal to my network, about the role. I do this knowing, there really is nobody to fill the role.

The recruiter today asked an interesting question. If you're not available, what type of person should I be looking for? In my mind, an evangelist should be equal parts:

Engineer

Product Development

Business Development

Sales

Marketing

So if you can find anyone coming from one of those disciplines, but has the technical chops and isn’t afraid of programming-I recommend starting with whichever of those skillsets is most important to you.

Ideally you want to find someone who has been programming for years, but recently has been a lead developer or architect, and has upper management experience as well as understands the business and customer end of operations.

If you fit the profile of an API or developer evangelist, or are just curious about the role, drop me a line I’d like to talk more, there is potentially a huge demand out there for your skills.